A semi-interesting psychological horror film that makes use of some
good young American and English actors, “The Hole” is an adaptation of
the book, “After the Hole” by Guy Burt. Though it has a promising young
cast and an interesting premise, some of the twists are either a tad
too unbelievable or too easily seen coming for the film to be entirely
successful.

The film begins with Liz (Thora Birch) traipsing down a lane towards
her private English school, wearing little but socks and a ratty robe.
She makes her way into the school, calls emergency and screams into the
phone before curling up into the fetal position. She winds up at the
hospital, where she is subjected to a rape kit and then placed in the
mental ward, where she is soon visited by Dr. Horwood (Embeth Davidtz),
a forensic psychologist of some sort. She asks Liz what happened, and
so begins the relation of her trials and tribulations in the hole.

We now see life a few weeks earlier at the prep school, where the girls
and boys are visible only if they are perfect. Liz and her friend
Martyn (Daniel Brocklebank), who obviously has a crush on her, are sort
of on the fringe of being cool and Liz is desperate to become fully
cool. Liz (along with practically everybody else) has a crush on Mike
(Desmond Harrington), a jockish type of American whose father is in a
famous band. Mike’s best friend is Geoff (Laurence Fox), and his friend
and wannabe girlfriend is the ever-popular Frankie (Keira Knightley).
According to Liz, Mike, Geoff and Frankie were all looking to get out
of an upcoming school trip to Wales, so Martyn set up a little
adventure for them to get away and stay hidden. He includes Liz in it,
hoping to help her woo Mike. The five meet in the woods and Martyn
reveals a small round door with a tiny window that is set into the
ground. The hole is an abandoned bomb shelter that has toilets and
power, but little else. Set for camping out, the four are locked in by
Martyn, who will return in three days, just in time to get them back to
school for the end of the Wales trip and the end of term. Anyone want
to guess whether or not Martyn will return in three days?

Mike, Geoff, Frankie and Liz hang out, and while Liz is trying subtly
to woo Mike, he and Geoff both seem more interested in the ebullient
Frankie. After three days, everyone begins to freak out because they
have no way of opening the door from the inside and only Martyn knows
where they are. If something has happened to Martyn, then they will
eventually die in the hole. Liz comes up with a plan to outwit Martyn,
whom she presumes has trapped them on purpose so that she will see what
a jerk Mike actually is. Liz’s ruse works, someone unlocks the door,
they all get out, Liz and Mike end up together and Liz’s story to Dr.
Horwood ends. Unfortunately, this is not the true story, for we find
that Liz is in fact the only survivor and Martyn has been accused of
kidnapping and murder. Dr. Horwood has to try and convince Liz that
there is more to the story, while she and a detective (Steven
Waddington) try and piece together what happened. Dr. Horwood is sure
that Liz is simply keeping things to herself because, due to the
intense physical and psychological trauma, her brain has chosen to shut
out the painful memories of what actually took place. Slowly we see
bits and pieces of what really happened, like the fact that the other
three never made it out of the hole alive, and that Liz is hiding
something. As the story progresses, we see more of the true interaction
within the hole, like how the four take turns supporting and then
turning on each other, depending on their mental state. Needless to
say, we do eventually find out what happened and it is quite
disturbing, but you’ll have to see it for yourself to find out.

This film came out three years ago, before Knightley became famous with
“Bend It like Beckham” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” She does a great
job as bad girl Frankie, exuding smarts and sex appeal all at once.
Harrington is another up and comer who really has the
sensitive/insensitive jock thing down to a science and Fox does a good
job as the easily temperamental Geoff. Birch is the actual star here,
and though her English accent fades in and out at times, she does an
effective job of playing the victim, stalker, heartbroken wretch and
psychotic. The actors and the idea of the story make it passable, as
does the mostly firm directing. Nick Hamm manages to create a creepy
situation not only through lighting and set design, but also through
the psychological makeup of the main characters and a subtle revealing
of the true events. On the other hand, the subtlety at times becomes so
maddening that you just sit there trying to figure out what happened,
and at times everything becomes clear far before it is revealed.
Remember, storytellers, you want to be subtle at times, but not so much
so that you distract the viewer from what is happening onscreen.
Anyhow, it would be easy to see this becoming a cult film of sorts for
anyone who has attended a private school or otherwise has gone through
the whole painful experience of trying to get people to like you.

Special features are included, but are mostly pedestrian in their
sophistication and execution. The deleted scenes are of the variety
where when you see them, you think, “Thank goodness they cut these.”
Each of the deleted scenes has a temp track over it, which is just
music from the rest of the film overlaid onto the soundtrack. Usually
the track is either too loud or entirely inappropriate for the scene in
question. Most deleted scenes either have their own specific scoring or
leave any music out; having prefabricated tracks makes these deleted
scenes hard to watch. The cast and crew bios and the image gallery are
sparse and consist of little more than promotional shots of the actors.
The commentary from director Hamm is one of the worst I have ever
heard. He is dry, pedantic and acts as if everything he talks about is
either the most interesting thing in the world when it isn’t, or is so
basic that he doesn’t feel particularly motivated to talk about it. Not
to sound obnoxious, but he sounds like the stereotype of a
self-important British director.

The transfer is surprisingly crisp and the blacks are nice and deep
with little grain swirl. Taking into account the fact that there are so
many dark, low-contrast shots in the film, the transfer is key to
making most of the scenes in the hole discernable on the small screen.
Unfortunately, the nice picture is kind of washed by a simplistically
mixed stereo surround audio track. At times, the music is mixed far too
richly and it just seems to draw an overt amount of attention to
itself, which is never good and even less so when the score gets a bit
goofy at times. Then again, “The Hole” is a few years old and
considering that, the lack of bells and whistles is understandable and
ultimately not really necessary for the type of film that it is.

This DVD was finally released with Knightley and Birch’s names and
faces on the cover, even though Knightley is billed fifth in the
credits. The release of the DVD and the overt presence of Knightley as
a selling point are clearly due to Knightley’s increasing popularity.
Overall, “The Hole” is a decent psychological thriller with a simple
design but more complex idea. With a crisp transfer that lacks other
frills, make room for this one in the cult/noir area of your DVD shelf.